Cored hull problems

[aquavit]

Albin uses a cored hull above and below the water line. What kind of problems have owners experienced with this construction?

[carolmarie]

After eleven years of ownership of a 28TE, zero issues.

[Pitou]

9 Seasons with a 28TE and zero issues. Have never heard of any on this forum either. Drilled a big hole for a transducer to prepare for bedding .. dry as a bone. No soft spot discoveries on the 31 as well.

[tego]

only had my 27FC for a year now but went through her extensively before my purchase and I haven't found any problems in the hull or on my deck. She's an '87 and the previous 2 owners took very good care of her!

[DougSea]

Hi Aquavit,

The only time a problem would be likely with the balsa cored hulls of the older Albin's is if a thru hull was improperly mounted. As long as your surveyor checks around all of the thru hulls and doesn't find any signs of water intrusion you should be good to go.

As an FYI - a properly mounted thru hull has had an oversized hole drilled thru the inner skin, the core is removed, and the void filled with epoxy. After it sets up the hold for the thru hull (or transducer) is drilled through the epoxy. This ensures that any water that gets into the opening doesn't ever contact the core.

[ShortCircuit]

I'd like to see more comments on the Cored Hull. The surveyor I contacted claims ALL Albins built after 2000, that he has inspected, have all had water in the hull.

[Nancy]

Our 2005 35CB was surveyed in May. Absolutely no moisture anywhere, hull or topsides.

[gmberkley]

bought my 2005 Albin 28 TE in 2020, surveyed and found zero moisture, and I tore the boat apart last winter, replaced every through hull fitting, and removed and reset all the port windows, and other various fittings, and checked the hull in various places with my moisture meter.................NOTHING

[Tree]

When I installed my axiom transducers I could've cried! Cut both 75mm holes and water poured out of the cores on both sides! obviously i thought i had a huge problem on my hands with a wet core - only to find my core on a 2000 boat was actually foam, what was interesting was that the foam was injected with resin according to my surveyor. I didn't think Albin did that or even did that so early on?

However, after spending a lot of time with a moisture meter checking the entire hull, inside and out and inside is critical to check on a cored hull. The only place moisture was found was around the areas i had drilled through for the transducers and a tiny areas below the bow thruster. It took a couple of days of head scratching to work out what was going on........

I didn't taste the water but we concluded it was fresh water intrusion from inside going out. We even drilled small pilot holes into the coring right on the bottom of the boat with not a drop to be seen.

So to conclude:

Bow thruster moisture - this area is where the last approx 8 gallons of water holds and sediment builds up over the year so water is leaking through the hull from inside to outside.

Transducer Location - this was an odd one but we finally hit the nail on the head. These were fitted right at the very end of the engine stringers and yes you guessed it, this is where a very small amount of water from the deck collects where it spills over from washing down but mainly where rain comes down the rod holders which are directly outboard from them. Stringers are bone dry tested with a moisture meter and small pilot holes.

I'll try and find some pictures of the core!